In advance of the September start of its bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in The Business of Cannabis, LIM has added some of the cannabis industry’s best-known leaders to its faculty.
Among these new instructors are four of the cannabis industry’s top professionals: Dasheeda Dawson, Jesce Horton, David Paleschuck, and Kristin Jordan, Esq.
“When we designed our cannabis degree programs, we wanted to provide our students access to the highest achievers from various parts of the cannabis business. With these cannabis all-stars joining our faculty, we are delivering on that promise,” said Michael Zaytsev, Academic Director of The Business of Cannabis.
Continued Zaytsev, “By learning directly from industry leading pioneers, our graduates will have a competitive advantage when pursuing the hundreds of thousands of jobs the legal cannabis industry will create.”
Dasheeda Dawson, who will be teaching The Retailing of Cannabis, is a global cannabis advocate, award-winning Fortune 100 business strategist, and bestselling author of How to Succeed in the Cannabis Industry.
Dawson is the City of Portland Cannabis Program Manager, responsible for overseeing all regulatory licensing, compliance, and equity initiatives for the city’s cannabis industry. Her office oversees the Social Equity & Educational Development (SEED) Initiatives, which includes the country’s first community reinvestment fund tied to cannabis tax revenue.
Dawson also serves as Board Chair of the national Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition and participates on the Oregon Cannabis Commission Governance Frameworking subcommittee. Additionally, she is co-founder and Chief Strategist for the Cannabis Health Equity Movement and co-founder of the Community Education Advocacy Symposium & Expo.
Jesce Horton is Chief Executive Officer at LOWD, an award-winning cannabis craft cultivation company. Jesce will be bringing his expertise to LIM students by teaching the course The Business of Cannabis Cultivation and Manufacturing.
An engineer, horticulturist, and energy management expert, Horton is a co-founder of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, the first and largest non-profit organization developed to create equal access and economic empowerment for cannabis businesses and the communities most affected by the war on drugs.
In 2016, Horton was appointed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown to the Task Force for Cannabis Environmental Best Practice and continues this work today as a member of the Board of Directors of the Resource Innovation Institute, an organization focused on creating energy efficiency solutions and standards for the global cannabis industry. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Cannabis Association.
Along with his wife, Jeannette Ward Horton, Horton founded the non-profit organization NuProject, which delivers grant loans, educational resources, job matching assistance and entrepreneurial services to cannabis business owners and career hopefuls.
Kristin Jordan, Esq. is the founder and CEO of Park Jordan, a commercial real estate brokerage and advisory services firm serving the cannabis industry. She is also an attorney, drug policy activist, and thought leader.
Until recently, Jordan served as the Director of Real Estate at Acreage Holdings. She led Acreage’s efforts in selecting real estate sites for the company's national footprint of cultivation, processing, and dispensary facilities. Prior to her work in the cannabis sector, Jordan practiced real estate law at several boutique firms and managed real estate portfolios for Kaplan, Inc., Morgan Stanley, and SoulCycle. She is a frequent speaker on real estate, cannabis regulations, and social equity and economic justice issues and in 2019 was distinguished by Forbes as one of “Fifteen Powerful and Innovative Women in Cannabis Right Now."
Jordan is the founder and CEO of Mannada, a NYC-based cannabis professional event production company, which launched The Maze, a weekly cannabis event listing newsletter, as well as the Cannabis Summit Series including the Cannabis Media Summit, Cannabis Real Estate Summit, and Cannabis Law Summit.
Jordan is also a co-founder of the Cannabis Cultural Association, a non-profit organization, and the founder of the Asian Cannabis Roundtable, a professional networking organization. Additionally, Kristin is a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Cannabis and the Minority Cannabis Business Association Policy Committee.
David Paleschuck, founder of Branding Bud Consulting Group, will be teaching Cannabis Marketing. His book, Branding Bud: The Commercialization of Cannabis – the first book on cannabis branding – was a #1 best-seller on Amazon.
With over 20 years of brand-building and consumer marketing experience with American Express, MasterCard, PepsiCo, and Microsoft, Paleschuck has played a role in developing and marketing many of today’s best-known brands.
Since entering the cannabis industry in 2012, Paleschuck has created profitable partnerships while working as the Vice President, Licensing & Brand Partnerships at DOPE Magazine and crafted award-winning cannabis-infused products as the Chief Brand Officer at Evergreen Herbal.
Paleschuck’s writing and thought leadership on cannabis branding and marketing has been widely featured in leading outlets, including Forbes, Kiplinger’s, The Brookings Institution, High Times, and many more.
These industry leaders join a team of stellar faculty members that also includes Penelope Nam-Stephen, Chief Commercial Officer of Community Growth Partners, formerly of Burberry and Juicy Couture; Marianne Cursetjee, CEO and co-founder of Alibi Cannabis; Melanie Nash, Chief Operating Officer of Purple City Genetics, formerly of REI and Tumi; Beryl Solomon, founder of Poplar, formerly of Kate Spade, Theory, and IBM; Wei Hu, CEO of MRTA Law, formerly of the NYC Human Resources Administration; and David Abecassis, co-founder of the Green Growers Alliance.
LIM College’s degree programs in The Business of Cannabis focus on specialized cannabis industry knowledge, as well as business skills such as marketing, retail management, branding, merchandising and supply chain management. The master’s degree program, designed for career-changers as well as those who are interested in advancing their current cannabis careers, will be delivered fully online and can be completed in one calendar year. The bachelor’s degree program is available on LIM’s midtown Manhattan campus or online.
